FAQs

Online Store

Shipping

Due to the way that our orders flow through to our warehouse we are unable to guarantee that amendments to either the contents of your order or the delivery details can be changed before your order is packed and dispatched.

Due to the weight and dimensions of some of the items in our store your order may be shipped in multiple packages. In theory these should arrive on the same Australia Post delivery, occasionally they do not. If you only receive part of your order please check the tracking number in your confirmation email, this should indicate how many packages are being shipped with your order and the status of each. Common items that this issue will relate to include: Tooshies Nappies, Tooshies Baby Wipes, Maternity Kits.

If you are still concerned about the shipment status of your items please contact us at orders@tomorganic.com.au

We used to ship internationally, but we had too many issues with orders going astray or not arriving. Until we can organise a secure and cost effective courier/freight option, we’ve decided to put a hold on overseas orders. Keep an eye on our website and social media channels and we’ll notify when this changes in the future.

TOM Organic

Tampons

We understand the frustration, and we have made improvements over the years to the tear tape. If you are using the tampons that have the TOM logo on the coloured band then this is the most recent version.

Unfortunately, we cannot make our tampons with the twist open plastic, the main reason for this is that we don’t have the polypropylene veil over our cotton (this veil is present on all conventional tampon brands), this means that if you twisted open the plastic wrapper on our tampons it would cause the tampon to “pill” and cause pulling in the cotton. This is why you will never find a 100% organic cotton (or cotton) tampon with a twist open feature.

From our point of view, it’s more important for our tampons to be 100% organic cotton than to be able to offer an easy-open solution. The only advice we can give you is to be persistent and look for the “circular” cut in the tape (from experience, it does get easier the more you get used to it) and know that while sometimes it may be frustrating, you are using the best possible product for your body and our planet.

Pads & Liners

Certified organic cotton is the only material that we will ever allow to be in direct contact with your skin. Our pads used to be 100% organic cotton, but last year we received feedback from our customers that the pads were not meeting their performance expectations so we added a layer of FSC (sustainably harvested), bleach free, cellulose underneath the top two organic cotton layers. This has increased the absorbency of the pads by 50%, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

We made a decision last year to change the composition of our pads because we had received feedback from our customers that the pads were not meeting their performance expectations (i.e. they weren’t absorbent enough).
There are not many ways to increase the absorbency of an organic cotton product, we didn’t want to add SAP to our pads so we added a layer of FSC (sustainably harvested), bleach free, cellulose underneath the two organic cotton layers. This has increased the absorbency of the pads by 50%.
Unfortunately by adding this material we no longer meet the minimum 70% organic ingredients required to have the ACO certification on the front of our pack. It was a difficult decision but ultimately we chose performance because it is important to us that our products live up to our customers performance expectations. All the cotton is in our pads is still 100% certified organic by GOTS in Europe. We are currently working with the ACO to find a way to better communicate this on our packaging.

The bag is there because we are committed to health and hygiene first and foremost, this extra packaging also ensures the pads/liners cannot be tampered with while in transport to the shelf and also whilst on shelf.

Our pads and liners are individually wrapped to serve a functional purpose, we received overwhelming feedback from our community asking for an individually wrapped organic liner for women to carry in their bags and purses. We are in the process of investigating our options to move to a suitable bioplastic material.

Our number one priority is to use organic cotton against the most sensitive parts of a woman’s body, our pads do not contain SAP (which are the super absorbent crystals made from petrochemicals) like other brands do. Therefore, if you have made the switch to TOM recently, you may find you need to change your pads more frequently.

Packaging & General

To date we have worked really hard to move all of the plastic components of our actual products (pads and liners) to biodegradable plastics and the products themselves are now 100% biodegradable. Unfortunately not all bioplastics are created equal, and many on the market today are plastic blends/don’t actual biodegrade in home composting systems and we question how many people will dispose of this packaging in a commercial composting facility. There is a fine balance in finding a material that is stable enough to run through our packing machines, has a decent shelf life (we are in supermarkets so this is a requirement), isn’t ridiculously cost prohibitive and actually biodegrades. So far we haven’t found one that ticks all these boxes, but we promise you we have not stopped looking.

In the meantime, the plastic in our products can be recycled with other soft plastics at many local recycling facilities.

As of September 2018, we have begun to phase out the adhesive strip on our pads range. The adhesive strip is made of siliconised paper. To find out whether this is recyclable in your area, we suggest contacting your local council.

It’s a great suggestion and we have thoroughly explored many different options. Unfortunately it is not a simple as just switching out a material, there are lots of factors that need to be accounted for.
Cellophane is a reasonably difficult material to work with because it is not very stable (most biodegradable materials aren’t) and it needs significant temperature control and storage, it also has a very high percentage of wastage when you print or run it through packing machines (it breaks easily).
We are working on a biodegradable alternative and as soon as we find a material that meets the requirements we will start to use it.

tooshies by TOM

Wipes

At this stage we’ll only be able to offer the 70 pack in larger quantities. This is because our wipes are made from 100% biodegradable cellulose they are more absorbent than traditional poly blend wipes, what does this mean? It means they absorb more liquid and continue to do so over time, and the more wipes we put into a pack the more likely they are to dry out quickly. We are working to find alternative solutions to this, but in the meantime we’ve found that our uniquely textured wipes are so good a “wiping away” the messes on little tooshies that you’ll end up using less wipes per clean than you would with other brands so your pack should last a little longer!

Our wipes are made from 100% cellulose and have no poly plastic binders which means they are biodegradable. They have been independently tested and will biodegrade and compost in municipal/industrial facilities according to ASTM D5338 and OECD 311 standards. The biodegradability timeframe is approx. 45 – 60 days.

Please note that these tests are not carried out in home composting systems and for health and safety reasons, we do not recommend composting bodily fluids in home composting systems.

Our wipes are made from 100% plant based cellulose – plant based cellulose is not made from tree wood but rather from “shrubs” – it is the most sustainably grown form of cellulose. It is also TCF (totally chlorine free) and FSC certified (sustainably grown). Cellulose is 100% biodegradable.
Most conventional wipes on the market are made from a cellulose/polypropelene (plastic) mix, which means they are not biodegradable.

The packaging on our baby wipes is made of plastic because we haven’t found a more suitable material for a wet product. The plastic is recyclable, but unfortunately most recycling facilities in Australia don’t allow “soft” plastic packets of any kind in the recycling bin (as a rule, if you can scrunch it up you can’t put it in the recycling). There are special facilities which recycle soft plastics and many supermarkets now have recycling bins for soft plastics, so check what’s available in your area.

The wipes packaging is a mix of PP (polypropylene) and PE (polyethylene) so it’s fine in RedCycle. As per their website if the plastic “scrunches” you can recycle it. The flip lid is the same material but it’s hard so we’d recommend removing it before disposing in the normal recycling.

Nappies

We do need start by letting you know that Health and Safety regulators in Australia always recommend that nappy products are disposed of in the rubbish. This is because they contain bodily fluids and excrement, so there is a potential health risk involved in composting them.

The short answer to this question is that you can’t put any disposable nappy in the compost – because they all contain components and layers that are made of polypropylene.

Our nappies contain biodegradable plastics, renewable plastics (derived from plants) and regular plastic. Plastic as this is an essential component in a disposable nappy and it simply wouldn’t perform without it. Knowing how important a well performing nappy is to parents, we have aimed to reach the perfect balance between a sustainable product and one that won’t compromise on performance.

Through the product development process, it became increasingly important to us to consider the entire lifecycle of a nappy, looking at our environmental footprint during production as well as disposal. The biggest problem with covered landfill in the developed world is that it doesn’t get any air or light, two essential components of decomposition. By using plant-based “plastics” and sustainably harvest wood pulp we’re making a conscious effort to use renewable resources with a lower carbon footprint.
We’d love to see the entire life cycle of disposable nappies become more sustainable, and if we can find ways to support those types of initiatives, we will.

Tooshies by TOM nappies are made from a combination of materials, some of which are biodegradable. Where possible we’ve replaced conventional polypropylene (plastic) with a material called PLA – a bio–based plastic that’s made from corn, it’s a sustainable and fully biodegradable material. PLA is present in the top sheet, back sheet and inner acquisition layer of the nappy (a fancy name for the layer that draws the liquid into the core). Our nappies have an absorbent BIO Core (made from wheat starch) that is blended with the SAP for maximum absorbency. The core of our nappy also contains sustainability forested cellulose pulp which is biodegradable, and the SAP crystals are compostable.

Most nappy brands have an overlap in the kg suggestions on their sizes, and the overlap is often bigger as the nappy sizes go up. It actually quite difficult to accurately determine a nappy size by the weight of the baby. Babies (like adults!) come in all shapes and sizes and two 12kg babies can have very different body shapes and fit into different nappy sizes.

Our best advice is to just keep an eye on how the nappy is fitting your baby – you will best placed to know when a nappy is starting to feel too small/tight, you can often judge this by how tight the waist and leg bands are. Absorption is also a good indicator, if you find the nappy is a little on the tighter side and it’s also leaking more frequently then it’s usually a sign it’s time to go up a size.

We don’t currently have a wetness indicator on our nappies as we are yet to find a raw material to do this that we feel comfortable putting in our product. We’re constantly on the hunt for ways to upgrade our products, watch this space.

Online Subscriptions

TOM Organic

It’s simple! We know that every woman is different, so that’s why we think it’s important to offer a tailored subscription service. Pick your bundle of products (from our selection of pads, tampons, liners) and choose how frequently you’d like it delivered – every 1, 2, or 3 months based on your cycle and what’s most convenient for you. Enter your shipping and billing info, and that’s it! Shipping is free and occurs on the anniversary from date of starting your subscription.

Currently we have a fixed quantity and frequency on our tooshies subscriptions, these assumptions have been made on extensive customer testing and feedback, however we are always learning and if you have any feedback please email us at hello@tomorganic.com.au.

Unfortunately we’re unable to process exchanges for nappy sizes at this time. We’ve chosen a one month subscription frequency to hopefully reduce the risk of this occurring. If you have a couple of packs left over we encourage you to share them with another mum who can still use them or donate them to charities like St Kilda Mums, The Nappy Collective.

ALL SUBSCRIPTIONS

You can pause, change products or cancel your subscription anytime by signing into your account via the LOGIN button top right of the screen on any Shop pages. You will be sent an email reminder with these links before each delivery.

We currently ship within Australia only. We used to ship internationally, but we had too many issues with orders going astray or not arriving. Until we can organise a secure and cost effective courier/freight option, we’ve decided to put a hold on overseas orders.

Yes. Your subscription will renew on the anniversary of original date from placing your order (note: monthly for Tooshies and every 1,2,3 months for TOM). You can adjust, pause or cancel your subscription at any time.

Each order has a specific tracking number that you will be emailed after your order ships. If you no longer have access to that email, you can request your tracking information by emailing us via hello@tomorganic.com.au

You will receive an email 3 days before your card is charged and order is dispatched. Any changes or cancellations once the card has been charged will only apply from the next order cycle. If your order processes with any incorrect information, just email hello@tomorganic.com.au and we’ll get things sorted for you.

What a wonderful gift idea! The short answer is yes you can, but there are a couple of limitations – we cannot currently include gift cards in our subscriptions and you will need to register the subscription using the recipient’s email address and contact details, this way they will receive the reminder emails to change product combination/nappy size and update their details. Please note that the subscriptions are rolling, which means they continue until they are cancelled. If you’re after a baby shower gift, we can also recommend our New Mum Kit.